How did Colossus avoid the problem of synchronizing two paper tapes?

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The Colossus computer at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, England, c. 1943. — Colossus Funding for this code-breaking machine came from the Ultra project.

Colossus avoided the problem of synchronizing two paper tapes by eliminating the need for one of them entirely. While its predecessor, the "Heath Robinson" machine, required two tapes—one for the encrypted message and one for the key data—Colossus used only a single paper tape to hold the message. The crucial key data, which had previously been stored on the second tape, was instead generated electronically by the computer's own internal circuits.1